COPRA-The agro-economy of Lakshadweep People.

Lakshadweep
has its own peculiarity due to its geographical isolation from our
mother land India.Coconut
and fishing is the main occupation of the islanders. The coconuts may
be reached here through the vast ocean sea route by floating from the
neighboring state of Kerala or from the neighboring country Ceylon.
Or the earliest settlers, who came from the Malabar cost, might have
brought with them the Coconut
tree, theirKalpavriksha
(the
beneficent tree of heaven). The
high water table, nearness to the sea, gentle breeze, abundant
sunshine and porous soil contributed the rich growth of the coconut
tree which served the numerous needs of the early settlers. Even
after centuries, the coconut tree maintains its supremacy in the
domestic economy of the islands and even now it is the only crop of
economic importance.

The
earliest settlers had planted coconut trees only on a small scale.
There were vast areas of waste land when the British took over the
islands. The policy of the British Government was to let out such
Government lands to the individuals on cowle
(
a system of granting lands on improving leases). The cowle system
boosted the coconut plantation covering the entire islands, it is
believed.

The total
geographical area of the islands is 32 Sq. Kms. Except for a few
places of low lying lands in Andrott and Kalpeni, the entire
cultivable area has been planted with coconuts.When
coconut attained commercial importance, people interested to its
cultivation.

There are special
varieties of coconuts like Chenga,
Karinga. Orange and Green dwarf varieties are famous
(tender coconut) for welcome drinks. A good number of coconut trees
are grown naturally without any scientific methods of manure. Most of
the varieties are productive and give high yielding in Lakshadweep.
In many islands the coconut palms are thickly populated without
adopting any scientific method. The Agricultural Demonstration Units
in all islands are helping the coconut farmers to increase the
productivity by adopting scientific methods, organic farming and
minimize nut damage loss by demonstration practices. The Agricultural
Department in Lakshadweep is providing funds for the rodent control
through community rat hunting programmes under the auspices of
Village Dweep Panchyats by providing required scientific and local
methods. The Administration also encouraging inter-cropping in the
inter spaces available in coconut plantations.

Making
copra is the main object of the farmers as there is no scope for any
coconut based major industry in the islands. It is the life line of
most of the people who has the only source of income for their
livelihood. As the younger generation is not interested to take any
task for earning, aged people only are seen engaged in the field of
copra making in the islands. This may be the reason that a major part
of coconuts are turned to seedling. The modern developments took
place in the islands are encouraged the educated youths to find out
white color jobs leaving behind the traditional job of making copra.

The
process of copra making is normally carried out during the period
fair season except May to September (Monsoon) in all islands. This
process is being carried out throughout the fair season, before the
onset of Monsoon. Before that the land owners used to finish their
harvesting of coconuts so as to enable complete the process before
Monsoon. Plucking of coconuts also a major problem faced by the
farmers/land owners in the islands, due to non availability of
coconut climbers. They are very few in numbers now a days. The
labourers came from mainland are engaged in this job of climbing and
plucking coconuts in the islands.

After
the harvest of bulk collection of the coconuts, next process is to
removal of husks- de husking. This is a highly skilled work of a
traditional method using an iron crow bar, a sharp edged weapon. Now
a de-husking machine – a very simple tool for easily removing the
husk is available in the market. After that, the next work will be
started in the early morning that is splitting the nuts into two
equal pieces with the help of a big sharp knife, this is also a risky
job as the coconut shells are very strong. During this process a
special item called”fongu” is removed from some nuts. This is a
sweet part of a day old nut which has grown to become a seedling. It
is then kept under the sun for a week; after two or three days the
shells will be removed with a wooden weapon locally called ‘parakol’.
In this stage the product is now called Copra,
the Dry Coconut. This product is known as “Deevai
Copra”
in the market. All these traditional process will be completed with
the drying of the pieces of coconuts under the direct sun. After that
the copra is temporarily packed in gunny bags weighing about 30 Kgs
each by farmers and it will be taken to the Copra yard of the
concerned societies in the islands as per the notice issued by the
authority on a specified date and time.

The
marketing part of copra is being looked after by the LCMF through the
co-operative societies in all islands. They are the authorized agents
to market this product through the Lakshadweep Co operative Marketing
Federation (LCMF). The main office of the LCMF is at Beypore and it
has a branch at Mangalore. The co operative societies are functioning
in all the ten islands and it is managed by a Board of Directors as
per its Bye-law registered under Societies Registration Act-1961. The
coconut farmers are informed by the societies about the collection of
Copra well in advance in every year by issuing a notice. The copra so
collected is sorted by the authority consisting of the members of the
Society’s Board of Directors. In order to make value added
qualitative product this process is very important, revealed
Shri.P.Muhsin, Secretary Co-Operative Society, Agatti. While sorting,
the spoiled or damaged copra due to heavy moisture content and fungus
affected will be removed and the good quality copra only will be
properly weighed in 30 Kgs in each gunny bags. Each bag is labeled as
“ C/Agt” to identify the consignment at the LCMF Godown at
Mangalore.

The
annual production of copra and its income to the islands are amounted
to croers of rupees, as per the following details of Agatti Island
only, revealed from reliable sources.

ISLAND
WISE TRANSACTION OF MARKETING OF COPRA

(Quantity
in MT and Value in Lakhs)

2006-2007

2007-2008

2008-2009

2009-2010

2010-2011

Sl.No

Name
of Island

Qty

Value

Qty

Value

Qty

Value

Qty

Value

Qty

Value

1

Kavaratti

502.43

180.37

492.85

188.09

488.22

196.94

542.97

240.95

250.71

160.86

2

Kalpeni

365.52

131.22

367.06

140.63

330.09

133.79

395.01

175.78

189.84

122.05

3

Amini

395.24

141.89

415.54

158.73

449.63

181.93

515.29

227.15

287.78

185.82

4

Andrott

683.39

224.59

677.08

254.34

749.92

306.63

800.21

356.09

325.38

215.78

5

Minicoy

11.19

4.01

20.66

7.57

8.45

3.29

28.89

12.85

6.11

3.86

6

Agatti

362.85

130.26

367.61

139.98

427.75

174.38

467.57

208.07

313.71

200.89

7

Kadmat

192.92

69.25

255.37

94.11

259.74

100.93

290.91

129.46

157.04

103.81

8

Kiltan

219.56

78.82

207.67

79.71

271.36

108.72

270.98

120.59

216.00

140.38

9

Chetlat

89.81

32.24

130.32

49.53

131.75

51.82

140.47

62.51

79.22

50.49

10

Bitra

8.96

3.21

10.77

3.93

14.01

5.41

13.73

6.11

12.55

7.91

Total

2831.87

1015.86

2944.93

1116.62

3130.92

1263.84

3466.02

1539.56

1838.34

1191.85

[Source:
The Agatti Island Co Operative Marketing Society]

A
brief of export details of deevai
copra by
coop.supply & marketing society, Agatti to LCMF, Mangalore
during the year 2011-12.

The
Agatti Island Co Operative Marketing Society has exported a total
quantity of copra 30 Kg Bags x 10000 Bags = 330 M T an estimated cost
of the product is Rs. 168.30 Lakhs during 2011-12. This consignment
was marketed to NAFED as the open market of copra is very less
compared to support prize, said the Secretary.

The
consignments of thousands of copra bags are normally used to store
safely for want of a suitable conveyance to Mangalore port. Usually
the copra is being transported in Motor Sailing Vessels as the
handling of loading/unloading can be done easily from jetty to vessel
directly and vize versa. The first consignment of this copra season
2253 bags already dispatched to Mangalore in MSV. Jamaliya on 11th
March 2012. The first position to export copra in Lakshadweep is
Andrott, second is Amini and third position is the capital island
Kavaratti, it is learnt. Agatti comes in fourth position, reveals
reliable sources.

The
LCMF and Cooperative Supply & Marketing societies in the islands
are the very back bone of the Island economy as far as marketing of
Agricultural products and the distribution of consumer goods as the
PDS is being handled through the Cooperative Supply & Marketing
societies in Lakshadweep. A brief on the Island wise transaction of
marketing of Copra for the last five years are as follows.